Charles West
Tools of Intelligence: Talking with the Catchers of Long Island’s Recent Aces
by Pat Duryea Pitchers are unique animals. No one pitcher is the same. Each pitcher has a unique mix of pitches, movement, and velocity. To find those wrangling the pitchers, you look no further than right behind home plate. The catcher. Nobody knows a pitcher better than their catcher. Catching is far from a passive profession, they must strategize just as much as any pitcher and do a whole lot of dirty work. But as we examine the top pitchers in Suffolk County across the past two seasons there is no better perspective to hear from, than that of their catchers. Pat-Med 2, Sachem East 0 WP: Josh Knoth (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 Ks) S: Jack Costello Jayden Kennedy: RBI double, bases loaded walk Pat-Med will face No. 1 Connetquot tomorrow pic.twitter.com/ORo94RMhrG — Axcess Baseball LI (@axc...
Ward Melville Looks to Build on 19-Win Season
by Max Edelman Special thanks to Metamorphosis Landscape Design for sponsoring this year’s season preview series. Paul Gibson Award winner Charles West gets the start for the Suffolk All Stars against Nassau in the Grand Slam Challenge pic.twitter.com/cOlUKKZTMK — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 14, 2023 Last season, the Ward Melville Patriots rode a 19-win season to the conference finals. Unfortunately for the Patriots, it wasn’t meant to be. Head coach Lou Petrucci, who is going into his 17th season as head coach of Ward Melville, looked back on what was a good season, despite it not ending with a conference championship. “We won 19 games.” Petrucci said. “We advanced to the conference finals, it was a good season for the boys. I’m disappointed on how it ended, lost to P...
GAME RECAP: Charles West Fans 12, Derek Savicki Hits Sac Fly to Send Ward Melville to Conference Finals
Ward Melville is moving on! Pinch hitter Derek Savicki hits a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th and the Patriots eliminate Longwood with a 3-2 win Ward Melville will face Pat-Med tomorrow pic.twitter.com/AlrqSGiNEN — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2023 With the bases loaded, 1 out and the game tied 2-2, Ward Melville junior Derek Savicki was called upon to pinch hit against Longwood RHP Louis Kaleb. “All I was thinking is hit the ball hard,” said Savicki. “I knew that if I put a ballin play, good things would come from it. I tried my best to stay as relaxed as possible, knowing how big of a spot I was in a I knew I had to get the job done for my whole team,” said Savicki. He was able to elevate a pitch to deep center field that was tracke...
Ward Melville Ready to Continue Winning Tradition
by Andy Smith The captain delivers! Tom Ribaudo crushes a 3-R HR to give Ward Melville a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth pic.twitter.com/llOyO2d6th — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 5, 2022 Ward Melville is coming off another successful season. The Patriots finished with a record of 16-9 and qualified for the playoffs once again. The Patriots season came to an end after losing to Longwood in the Long Island Class AA Semifinals. Head Coach Lou Petrucci reflected on what lessons were learned during the season. “We learned how to battle through adversity and the importance of concentrating on every pitch.” Petrucci is entering his 17th season as the head coach of the Patriots. Petrucci, a native of Connecticut, played college baseball before taking on the responsibilities of ...
Ken Kortright State Farm Agency Game of the Week: Billy Bullock Fires Gem in 4-1 Win to Sweep Ward Melville
Postgame interview with Sachem North RHP Billy Bullock pic.twitter.com/rZxjlojBeP — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2022 Whether you scored it a hit or an error, it’s undisputable that Billy Bullock fired a gem and Sachem North completed a huge sweep over League II rival Ward Melville in a 4-1 victory at Bill Batewell Field. Bullock has been outstanding all season for the Arrows who improved to 8-4 in league play. He noted that “nobody was talking about us when the season started,” and now they are three games behind the reigning Long Island Champs, Commack, in the standings. The Arrows wasted no time getting on the board against Ward Melville starter and UCONN-commit Charles West. They got a leadoff single by Bullock, and RBI double by Billy McKinney and R...
Ward Melville Ready for New Challenges of League II
By Daniel Lopes Phillies prospect Ben Brown (Ward Melville 2017) getting some work in. Fastball back up to 95. The 6’6 RHP has a minor league career ERA of 3.41 pic.twitter.com/zZOpsd4UDD — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 30, 2022 After a 13-5 season in 2021, head coach Lou Petrucci and his Ward Melville squad are ready to enter a new era of the program, as they will play in League II for the first time of Petrucci’s career with the program. “I’m going to miss all of my friends in League I,” said Petrucci. “But I’ll try to make new friends in League II.” As they make this transition, they will be without two key players and leaders who have since graduated in Luke Gacovino and Mikey Mortilla. Petrucci praised Gacovino’s ability to lead the team even during an uncertain s...
How Good is the 2023 Class of Pitchers on Long Island?
The velocity in the game of baseball right now is insane. I feel like an old man when I say when I was in high school if a kid threw 80 MPH by his junior year it was eye-opening. It probably meant he was going to gain some strength over the next year and that would turn into 85 maybe 86-87. This wasn’t in the 1950s, this was just over a decade ago. Somewhere along the line, the standard has changed. Everyone playing travel or varsity baseball seems to throw at least that hard and the players getting ‘D-1 looks’ are now in the mid-to-upper 80s’ by the time they are juniors. Now, I know that is not the be all, end al. There’s plenty of other aspects of pitching I look for, but when pitchers throw strikes and also have velocity that is a standard deviation or two...
Up Next Powered by The Yard Sports Academy: Charles West
(This is the sixth installment of our popular ‘Up Next’ Series in which we spotlight the next wave of superstars on Long Island. Previously, we have featured Jayden Stroman, Liam Stemmler, Paul Napolitano , Sadier Vicioso and Matt Gileno. None of these players have appeared in a varsity game, but we are confident that they will soon. The series is Powered by The Yard Sports Academy, which you can check out here.) Charles West, aptly named for a left-handed pitcher, didn’t waste his time this summer facing competition that would be helpless against him. He chose to go the more challenging route–pitching a year up–against competition that would provide more of a challenge. The end result was that they weren’t very successful either–as the 14-year-old...
